Legislature 2010: Day 23 (Updated)

• Gov. Joe Manchin expects to sign the fast-tracked school calendar bill this hour, MetroNews reports. (Update: The Associated Press and MetroNews report on the signing.)
  

• An Upshur County lawmaker shared his son's struggle with drug addiction while urging fellow House members to support his proposal for funding treatment problems by hiking the beer tax by a penny a bottle, The Charleston Gazette reports.

• The Register-Herald of Beckley also has an item on the appeal by Republican Delegate Bill Hamilton, as does MetroNews (with audio).

• Both The Gazette and MetroNews report "on a hotly debated proposal to let optometrists expand the scope of their practice."

• A trio of GOP lawmakers "are calling on Gov. Joe Manchin's administration to perform an accounting of all unfilled jobs in state government.," the Herald-Dispatch of Huntington reports.

• Public Broadcasting reports that lawmakers were concerned to learn that the state's Crime Victims Compensation Fund devotes "about $100,000 a year helping to make residences that have been used as meth labs livable again." With audio.